August

Politicians all over Europe, or at least in France and the South, take the month of August off, and the private sector can't seem to grasp it. In the real world, above a certain level, you are contactable 24 hours a day, seven days a week. It is quite common for your boss to tell you, just as you are packing your bucket and spade, that your holiday is off, and in these days of smartphones to be told to get on the next plane home. It's a different world in the State sector, and particularly among the priveleged political class.

So the political elite of Europe has disappeared for a month, while the guys who buy and sell their countries' debt are still at work. As Italy goes away, the amount it pays for its benchmark 10 year bond has reached 6.26% and there is still a lot of borrowing to be done this year.

Spain's borrowings have reached 6.46% and the Prime Minister, José Luis Rodriguez Zapatero (it sounds like a name from a comic opera which would be quite appropriate) has delayed his holiday. Unfortunately the markets felt that for an olive belt socialist to delay his holiday things must be even worse than they thought and they have marked the debt down.

Note to the Italian Treasury: you may find it unsporting, but this is not a game. They are allowed to make you bust during August, and will expect you to be at your desks.